Reality
by Psycho Babble
Summary: What if the Matrix is real and we are all a part of it?


The Matrix is one of my favourite films. Those who have seen it know that it tells a story of people stuck inside a computer program so that their own body's energy can be used to sustain AI. When I first saw the Matrix I felt as though I had finally been given the answers; as Trinity puts it to Thomas 'It's the question that drives us.' Which is true, but in some instances I felt like I had been given answers to questions I didn't even know I had. I have always felt as thought I'm somewhere I don't belong and someone or something else is controlling what I say, how I act, everything I do is a pre-programmed response and it's all be controlled by some outside influence.  
  
Needless to say it was not very hard for me to accept that the Matrix was something other than just a film. Perhaps it is just a film made by people with a very good imagination, but ask yourself this:  
  
What if it isn't?  
  
What if Zion really exists?  
  
What if Morpheus, Niobe, Roland, Ballard and all the other captains, ships and their crews fight to free us all?  
  
And what if the Matrix is real, and we are all just pawns in a chess game where there's a lot more at stake than just losing your king?  
  
At the end of Revolution the Oracle ask the Architect about the ones that want to be free, he replies that they will obviously be freed. Was he referring only to those that are a certain age? Are computer hackers/programmers? Or does he include people like me? I don't know how to hack into any computer system, I only know a little about programming. What use am I to the resistance then? And if I am to go by what Morpheus says in the first film at the age of twenty-six I'm probably to old to be freed. All I really have to offer is that I know this world isn't real, but is that enough?  
  
Try this on for size: Morpheus says in the first film: "Throughout human history we have been dependent on machines to survive."  
  
This is definitely true in my life at least. Take what I'm doing as I write this, I'm drinking coffee, listening to music, watching a video and I just phoned a friend of mine. In a few minutes I'm going to take a shower, later on I'm going to visit a friend, check my emails and numerous other things. Kettle, walkman, tv, video, phone, water heater, bus, computer, that's a lot of machines. If you were to take away every one of these what would we do? How would we survive without them? If you took away every single type of machine we had we would end up back in the days of the Neanderthal. We would have to eke an existence out of the earth, the way we were always meant to, survive by having to gather or hunt our own food. Rather than going into Tesco to buy the pre-packaged, already prepared food. Everything we have now makes our lives easier, or does it? The human races are mammals, every other type of mammal on this planet is not dependent on machines for their very survival, and yet we are. If our ancestors saw us now what would they say to us? We have come so far from our original roots that we no longer know how to do things for ourselves, everything we could possibly want is available in a store near you...unless it's reality you're looking for.  
  
Still not convinced? Then let us look at this from another point of view. In reloaded the architect tells Neo that the first Matrix he created was perfect, a work of art, flawless, sublime. The first Matrix failed; in part, because we (humans) prefer to be violent. While we all claim to hate violence, some part of us revels in it. When we hear of something bad happening in the world we say things like 'oh isn't that terrible. Someone should put a stop to it.' But who? If we are not willing to do anything then why the hell should we expect others to do something? I don't expect people to fight my battles for me, but not everyone can say that. Some say that they win a war, and that others loose that war. But there are no winners in a war; the one certainty in life and war is that people die. But people die anyway, right? In war people are killed, by guns, bombs, chemical weapons etc etc. And we are the ones that kill these people, yes, you heard me right, we killed them, we put the guns, bombs, chemical weapons in the hands of people who use them. We created the world in which we live and yet we are still not happy. Just what exactly does it take for us to be content? It looks like the architect was right, and that we did after all get the world that we wanted.  
  
The architect talks about choice. We are only given a certain number of ways we can react to any given situation. It is the same as a multiple choice question. The question has four possible answers and as such we cannot choose answer #5, because there is none. While this may not explain what I am trying to say very well if you think about it for a moment it will make sense to you.  
  
When Morpheus said in the first film: "Have you ever had a dream, Neo?" I remember nodding my head and thinking, yes that my whole life was a dream and I was just a spectator with no control over what I say or do. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought this.  
  
I've cut myself numerous times but I didn't feel the pain until I saw the cut. Does this not tell you something? Perhaps we need to see that a cut is there before we can feel the pain. For the mind to notice that something is not as it should be. I know a lot of you are going to think I'm a little weird when I tell you that a few weeks ago I cut myself trying to slice bread, I was using a carving knife and I remember looking at the cut wondering why it wasn't bleeding. It should have started bleeding straightaway, after all the cut was fairly deep and almost two inches long. So where the hell was the blood? As soon as I started thinking this it started to bleed. I believe that I needed to notice it first and the consciencely; for lack of a better word, persuade it to bleed.  
  
When was the last time you watched the news and saw something other than war, death etc? I've never been overly fond of watching the news, reading newspapers etc. Needless to say I don't know much about what goes on in the world, and to be perfectly honest I couldn't care less.  
  
If the movie is real then the question is who made it? And why?  
  
It could be Morpheus and his crew. Why? So that they could get the message out to thousands of people that the world we live in isn't real. A certain percentage of the people who saw the film would not believe it, but those that did believe would certainly make up for that.  
  
If it was the machines then why would they do it? I believe that if it was them that they made the film because they want people to just shrug of what they see. Or to think of these people as 'Matrix Freaks', people who are huge fans of the film.  
  
Society tells us we should act, talk and dress a certain way. If we don't then we to are branded as 'weirdoes'. Does this mean that we should fall in with the herd as they trek on with their so-called lives? They are after all what society deems as successful, they have good jobs, families, cars etc. They are on their journey to nowhere, plodding endlessly towards their doom, totally unaware of their own fate.  
  
Maybe those of us who believe this world isn't real will be branded as freaks. If that's what it takes then so be it.  
  
If Morpheus, Niobe, Roland, Ballard or any of the others were to offfer me the choice of the red or blue pill then which would I choose?  
  
I know the real world would be nothing like this one. If I; like Cypher would have known what the real world was like before making this choice, would I then take the blue? Go back to a live that I know isn't real? Join with the others who don't want or don't care what really going on?  
  
Knowing what I know now, would I want to live in the real world? Where people live on cold ships, earing the same slop every day, wearing clothes that look more like they belong in a bin than on a living person, fighting what seems to be an endless battle where one wrong move could cost me my live. Would I want the red or the blue pill? There are pros and cons for either one.  
  
I do know this; I'm tired of being here, expected to do the same as everyone else. I don't want to live this lie anymore where my whole life has been mapped out for me already. I want to see the truth. I want to live in the real world, where the ship I live on is cold, where I eat the same crap every day and I want to wear ripped clothes. I want to be master of my own fate.  
  
Morpheus, Niobe, Roland, Ballard if you really are out there I want the red pill. I want out of this dream for good. 


End file.
